The Narrative of A. Gordon Pym

Note

The circumstances connected with the late sudden and
distressing death of Mr. Pym are already well known to the public through
the medium of the daily press. It is feared that the few remaining
chapters which were to have completed his narrative, and which were
retained by him, while the above were in type, for the purpose of
revision, have been irrecoverably lost through the accident by which he
perished himself. This, however, may prove not to be the case, and the
papers, if ultimately found, will be given to the public.

No means have been left untried to remedy the deficiency. The gentleman
whose name is mentioned in the preface, and who, from the statement there
made, might be supposed able to fill the vacuum, has declined the
task-this, for satisfactory reasons connected with the general inaccuracy
of the details afforded him, and his disbelief in the entire truth of the
latter portions of the narration. Peters, from whom some information
might be expected, is still alive, and a resident of Illinois, but cannot
be met with at present. He may hereafter be found, and will, no doubt,
afford material for a conclusion of Mr. Pym’s account.

The loss of two or three final chapters (for there were but two or three)
is the more deeply to be regretted, as it can not be doubted they
contained matter relative to the Pole itself, or at least to regions in
its very near proximity; and as, too, the statements of the author in
relation to these regions may shortly be verified or contradicted by
means of the governmental expedition now preparing for the Southern
Ocean.

On one point in the narrative some remarks may well be offered; and it
would afford the writer of this appendix much pleasure if what he may
here observe should have a tendency to throw credit, in any degree, upon
the very singular pages now published. We allude to the chasms found in
the island of Tsalal, and to the whole of the figures upon pages 245-47.

Mr. Pym has given the figures of the chasms without comment, and speaks
decidedly of the indentures found at the extremity of the most
easterly of these chasms as having but a fanciful resemblance to
alphabetical characters, and, in short, as being positively not such.
This assertion is made in a manner so simple, and sustained by a species
of demonstration so conclusive (viz., the fitting of the projections of
the fragments found among the dust into the indentures upon the wall),
that we are forced to believe the writer in earnest; and no reasonable
reader should suppose otherwise. But as the facts in relation to all the
figures are most singular (especially when taken in connection with
statements made in the body of the narrative), it may be as well to say a
word or two concerning them all-this, too, the more especially as the
facts in question have, beyond doubt, escaped the attention of Mr. Poe.

Figure 1, then, figure 2, figure 3, and figure 5, when conjoined with one
another in the precise order which the chasms themselves presented, and
when deprived of the small lateral branches or arches (which, it will be
remembered, served only as a means of communication between the main
chambers, and were of totally distinct character), constitute an
Ethiopian verbal root—the root

“To be shady,”— whence all the inflections of shadow or
darkness.

In regard to the “left or most northwardly” of the indentures in figure
4, it is more than probable that the opinion of Peters was correct, and
that the hieroglyphical appearance was really the work of art, and
intended as the representation of a human form. The delineation is before
the reader, and he may, or may not, perceive the resemblance suggested;
but the rest of the indentures afford strong confirmation of Peters’
idea. The upper range is evidently the Arabic verbal root

“To be white,” whence all the inflections of brilliancy and
whiteness. The lower range is not so immediately perspicuous. The
characters are somewhat broken and disjointed; nevertheless, it can not be
doubted that, in their perfect state, they formed the full Egyptian word

“The region of the south.” It should be observed that these
interpretations confirm the opinion of Peters in regard to the “most
northwardly” of the, figures. The arm is outstretched toward the south.

Conclusions such as these open a wide field for speculation and exciting
conjecture. They should be regarded, perhaps, in connection with some of
the most faintly detailed incidents of the narrative; although in no
visible manner is this chain of connection complete. Tekeli-li! was the
cry of the affrighted natives of Tsalal upon discovering the carcase of
the white animal picked up at sea. This also was the shuddering
exclamatives of Tsalal upon discovering the carcass of the white
materials in possession of Mr. Pym. This also was the shriek of the
swift-flying, white, and gigantic birds which issued from the
vapory white curtain of the South. Nothing white was to be
found at Tsalal, and nothing otherwise in the subsequent voyage to the
region beyond. It is not impossible that “Tsalal,” the appellation of the
island of the chasms, may be found, upon minute philological scrutiny, to
betray either some alliance with the chasms themselves, or some reference
to the Ethiopian characters so mysteriously written in their windings.

“I have graven it within the hills, and my vengeance upon the dust within
the rock.”